The Critics Aren't Always Right & Updates Gone Wild

Ninjas, Swords and Blood, Oh My!

IGN gave Ninja Gaiden 3 a rating of 3.0 out of 10.

Oh, sorry. I was aiming for the other guy.

Coincidentally,this was the same score they gave the Clover classic God Hand. This means that IGN clearly don't like the same games I do (I would also argue against relying on scores as a metric of game quality, but it functions as a form of shorthand in most cases).

However, unlike God Hand, Ninja Gaiden 3 has been beaten down by practically every gaming critic. Scores like IGN's aren't uncommon, and they all have pretty similar gripes about the game. Having read most of the reviews, they seem to focus on the repetitiveness and the ease of the game, the prevalence of QTEs and a rather disjointed story.

If I were a cynic (which I probably am), it sounds like they were criticising Ninja Gaiden 3 for hewing too close to God of War.

I'll concede the point on the story. It's clearly a plot with Eastern sensibilities and hence might be hard to swallow for those who aren't exposed to Asian cinema or TV shows (especially anime) on a regular basis. It could be argued that it's practically a Japanese Call of Duty plot, but then that would probably prove more nonsensical.

The other criticisms baffle me, though. The most common seems to be that Ninja Gaiden 3, in being easier than either of its prequels, loses its unique selling point and offers a shallower experience. I've played through all the modern Ninja Gaidens (and their respective Sigma upgrades) and I have to say that Ninja Gaiden 3 on Hard is still freaking hard. On the other hand, it isn't AS hard as NG and NG2. Ninja Gaiden and its first sequel were purposely set to a high difficulty because the battle system was so meticulously designed that it was only really made effective if the game was hard. By increasing the difficulty, players were forced to explore the system in a more intimate manner than with, say, God of War.

Does this mean that the lowered difficulty of the 3rd game reduces the complexity of the system? Of course not. The strategy is still there for those willing to dig deep (and for those attempting hard mode) but those playing on the default difficulty will be able to memorise a few combos and work their way through the game. I don't think it is right to expect a 'normal' difficulty to be hard just because that's how the prequels did it. Besides, you can still die on Normal if you're careless. I also don't agree with the idea that the game is shallower because you only have 1 weapon. God of War games give you several but they're still used in basic combinations of repeated Square button presses with a Triangle for good measure. Ninja Gaiden 3 has 3 weapons (two of them as free DLC though) that function with completely different movesets and behaviour. Selecting a new weapon in Ninja Gaiden is like selecting a different character in Soul Calibur.

QTEs though have been a divisive topic since Shenmue but why call out Ninja Gaiden 3 for these but not God of War? For that matter why not complain about QTEs in Call of Duty?

Personally, I like well-done QTEs. The ones in Ninja Gaiden remind me of From Software's Ninja Blade, which I think Team Ninja was 'inspired' by. Hayabusa's already been called a Super Ninja and the QTEs emphasise the Over the Top(TM) action that we've already been doing in Ninja Gaiden. Is it more satisfying to have a boss keel over once their life bar is depleted as in the first Ninja Gaiden, or to have a finishing move so absurd it becomes cool? And in the 2nd case, wouldn't a QTE be preferable to a cutscene? The addition of Obliteration techniques in Ninja Gaiden 2 already predisposes us to flashy endings for normal enemies, so it's the logical step to add QTEs to boss fights.

I enjoyed Ninja Gaiden 3 and a lot of what they added felt like organic extensions of the franchise, especially in light of its contemporaries like Ninja Blade and Bayonetta. Not to mention that it's a polished title that seems more inviting to more players than either of its predecessors. And the sense of empowerment from dispatching waves of enemies without dying or even taking damage by using every move in your arsenal is still second to none and I would recommend it without hesitation (for action gamers).

And, of course, play it because... ninjas. Duh.

Updates

I've often been asked by people which HD console to get, and quite often I always start with asking "Which games do you like?" and "Do you plan to play online?" and go from there.

If, after much discussion, a stalemate occurs, I always end up with this argument: get an Xbox 360 because the updates aren't as annoying as the PS3.

PS3 owners quickly get used to this screen

I always wonder why it's the one thing that gets glossed over in system comparisons. I would think 'time wasted while downloading cr@p' is an important factor in decision making.

To put things in perspective, System Updates on PS3 and 360 take about the same time to download (they can reach 100 MB in size), but Redmond publishes 360 updates maybe twice a year (thrice if we're unlucky). Sony release a new Update roughly once every 2 months (once had 2 updates on the Vita within a few weeks) though they're pretty stable now. That's a lot of time to spend.

It gets really bad when you have to download game-specific Updates (i.e., patches). For some reason, PS3 game updates can range from 10 MB to 200 MB. My assumption is that they're downloading new versions of the game executable. After downloading the patches at atrocious speeds, then they install for a few more seconds before you can start playing. If your game is a couple months old already, you're looking at some heavy downloading before you can start playing.

Xbox 360 gamers? I've seen an average of 2 - 4 MB patches. For some reason, my Xbox 360 also downloads files faster than even my PC. So at worst, I'm looking at 5 mins. lost from updates. I'm thinking that Microsoft compresses the files before sending them out, and the 360 does the decompression, but this is one time that I'm glad MS took a page from Apple. It Just Works (TM).

I also love how the 3DS handles System Updates. The 3DS downloads the files invisibly using SpotPass, and when it's ready it just tells you that the Update is ready to install. A minute later, the 3DS restarts with your new firmware. Freaking awesome.

The Vita, unfortunately, is still nowhere near as painless as the 360 or 3DS. Game updates can at least be downloaded in the background while you're doing another thing on your Vita (like Tweeting or something). System Updates still require you to wait out that download screen though. Oy.

Ah, patches. Can't live with them, can't live without them.